Scam
by Gollum
Summary: The title says it all - Harry discovers that everything he believes is a lie and he's part of a multi million pound psychological experiment. Poor ickle Harry. But no, I sense Voldemort having a part in this.... please review!
1. Default Chapter

Harry felt cheerful as he walked to his final lesson of the year before his OWL exams the following week. It was a bright summer's day, most of the teachers had told him that they had plenty of faith in his ability for the exams and that he barely needed to revise at all – not that Hermione let him listen – Cho Chang had smiled at him across the corridoor, and to top it off his last lesson was charms – a nice practical lesson. Charms was always fun, Professor Flitwick was perfectly approachable and once you got the hang of a spell, it was fairly easy.  
  
Harry slid into his seat between Hermione and Ron.  
  
'Cutting it fine,' Hermione hissed sternly, 'you were nearly late.'  
  
'Nearly,' Harry agreed calmly, taking his wand out of his robes.  
  
'We're learning the Haractercis spell today!' Ron whispered excitedly, 'I can't wait! Now I'll really be a match for Fred and George.'  
  
'Haractercis?' Harry whispered back, 'what's that?'  
  
'Honestly,' Hermione sighed, 'don't you read? It brings alive any inane object. It's the most difficult spell we get taught for the OWLs, because it can go wrong so easily, and you have to actually give the object a character. I tried it on matchbox last week. Look,' out of her pocket she produced a matchbox, which lay still on the table for a second before struggling, slug-like, towards Hermione's outstretched hand. She caressed the drawer gently and it lifted up its top a little, like a cat, enjoying being stroked. Hermione gave Ron and Harry a smug smile and slid it back into her pocket, as Professor Flitwick entered and assumed his usual position on top of a pile of books.  
  
'Now class,' he said in his usual squeaky voice, 'today, as you probably know, we'll be performing the Heractercis spell. It's in 'Standard Book of Spells, volume 3, Chapter 9', where you will find a very comprehensive description of how to perform the task. We will be giving characters to these envelopes. I will now hand out a piece of paper to each of you, which will have the desired character written on it;' he swished and flicked his wand at a pile of small pieces of paper, and a pile of envelopes, muttering 'Wingardium Leviosa' and they danced onto the desk. Harry got 'embarassed', Ron 'shy' and Hermione 'outgoing', and they began to work.  
  
It was difficult, Harry found. The book aid you had to imagine very hard the character trait, then say the spell word followed by the trait, but not matter how hard he imagined and how strongly he said 'Harachtercis Embarrassed,' his envelope did nothing.  
  
'You're not doing the proper wand technique,' Hermione said knowingly, her own envelope already sitting confidently upright, looking around, 'Book three, remember? So it's a figure of eight swish. A swish-a-swish-and- flick. Flick right in the centre of your figure of eight. That's better. Concentrate.'  
  
Harry's envelope gave a small flutter, and visibly reddened at one corner. Hermione nodded. 'Keep going,' she ordered, 'it'll get there. Oh, honestly, Ron, what on earth are you doing…?'  
  
Harry ignored them both as he concentrated on his envelope.  
  
'Haractercis Embarrased,' he said strongly. The envelope stood up and folded over a little at the reddish corner, as if looking away. Harry sighed contentedly – that was good enough for him.  
  
The sun suddenly burst out from behind a cloud, and streamed onto the envelope. It was then that he noticed something odd. There was a thread at the upright corner of the envelope. Gently, he outstretched his hand, and pulled at the thread. It was strong – stiff as a piece of metal. He traced it to the desk. Yes – unless he was very much mistaken, the wire was actually holding up his envelope. He studied it more closely. It was very, very thin. He could barely see it with a naked eye – wouldn't have noticed it if the sun had not fallen on it.  
  
He pulled the envelope off of the wire, and it fluttered to the desk, lifeless. Harry gave a jump.  
  
'Hermione!' he whispered, prodding her, 'Hermione, look!'  
  
'What now?' she turned from helping Ron.  
  
'My envelope was being held up by a piece of wire' Harry hissed.  
  
Hermione reddened. Her eyes flickered to the floor, then to Flitwick, who had not noticed them, then to the envelope. Ron looked at Harry for a second, then back at his own envelope.  
  
'It must have just been stuck on,' Hermione concluded briskly.  
  
'But now my envelope is lifeless.'  
  
'Well, obviously you didn't do the spell properly.'  
  
Harry frowned, and tried again. The envelope did not move. Hermione, Harry noticed, was glancing meaningfully at Flitwick when she thought he was not looking.  
  
'What's going on?' Harry asked.  
  
'Nothing,' Hermione said busily, 'just keep trying. I must go and get a glass of water.' With that, she disappeared from the classroom. Her envelope was sitting very still on the desk, still upright. Harry studied it closely. Sure enough, under one corner was the same hair-thin wire. He looked at Ron.  
  
'Ron!' he hissed, 'they're cheating us!'  
  
'What?' Ron asked uncomfortably.  
  
'Well, look! These enveloped are held up by miniscule little wires! It's a cheat. Look, I bet yours is too. It is, see!' Harry pulled the envelope away from the desk, at which it instantly fell lifeless. Ron looked at the floor.  
  
'Well?' Harry said impatiently.  
  
'You're right,' Ron said eventually, 'it's a scam, Harry. It's all a massive, massive scam.'  
  
'What?' Harry said incredulously. He hadn't really believed it when he'd said it himself, but from Ron's mouth…  
  
'None of it's real,' Ron said, blushing red, 'Hogwarts, magic. Muggles, Hagrid, the dragon, the stone, Voldemort, quidditch, flying, the troll. Everything – it's all fake. It's a huge scam.'  
  
'But… but everyone believes it!' Harry protested. He realised suddenly that the room was silent. Everyone was staring at him and Ron. Hermione returned with Dumbledore and McGonagall on either side, and a man who was an obvious muggle.  
  
'No,' Ron said quietly, 'I'm sorry, Harry. Just you.'  
  
'Everyone else knows?'  
  
'Of course,' Hermione said, trying to sound brisk but sounding nervous instead, 'magic's not real, Harry. How could it be?'  
  
'I…' Harry was speechless.  
  
'Did you really believe you were a famous wizard?' Draco appeared from nowhere and laughed with soft spite, 'it's all lies, Harry Potter. All lies.' 


	2. 2

'For God's sake, Harry!' Hermione snapped at him. She was still robed, her same old self, but a bit blurry. Harry felt water logged, and even more stupid than before. He blinked, and sat up. 'Leave me alone!' There were people all around him. Dubledore, Hermione leaning over him. McGonagall, Snape, Ron, Ginny. Draco. No Cho Chang, he noticed. 'We thought this might happen,' Dumbledore said wisely. He looked fake, now. How had Harry ever believed that that beard was real? He'd been so stupid! His first instinct was to reach for the wand and perform avada kedavra on all of them, or on himself. But then he remembered that all that was fake, too. 'It will take time to come round to the idea, of course,' McGonagall said kindly, 'you must go to the Gryffindor common room and wait while we decide what to do. This discovery was totally unplanned, you understand.' Harry, who wasn't in a mood to do anything they said - they, who had betrayed him so terribly - stood up and looked out over the lake. Dumbledore cleared his throat. 'Perhaps there's a better way,' he said, 'what would you like to do, Harry? Perhaps you'd like to go abroad or something? Somewhere quiet where nobody knows you? Or would you rather stay in England, live a celebrity life? You've been well-paid for the experiment, you realise. You have rather a stash of money in Barclays.' Barclays. How stupid he'd been to believe in the goblins, and vault 713. But, at least he didn't have to go back to the Dursleys. Anything was better than that. 'Of course, you could go back to the Dursleys,' Snape said, 'you'll realise now, of course, that they are your real parents?' Harry stared at him for a second, horror struck. 'What?' 'Well, of course. Dudley is your brother. We picked them out as perfect for this experiment.' A tear trickled down Harry's cheek, and he brushed it away angrily. 'I want to live in the castle,' he said at last. 'The castle?' a hint of panic came into Hermione's eyes, 'you can't do that! It's. it's just a large prop. Besides, it's becoming a tourist attraction. They'll love it. And even if it wasn't then you couldn't live there by yourself, you'd have social workers banging at your door all hours of the day. You wouldn't last there more than a week by yourself. No. You should go somewhere far away.' Harry turned away from her, anger bubbling inside him. He didn't want to leave the magic world behind. Even if it was just fake. He was an idiot, a total fool - he couldn't go out into muggle society like that. He'd die of shame. Only, he couldn't run away from them all. It was all so complicated. 'No,' he said at last, 'it's OK. I'll live with the Dursleys. I'll suffer. Don't worry about me. Not that you would anyway. When does the train.' 'You can take a taxi home,' Dumbledore said. 'Go and pack your things.'  
  
Muggles were all over the school as Harry went to collect his belongings together. Workmen in overalls, people removing bits of fake wall. Projectors being moved away from portraits where Harry had actually believed moving images survived. A lump burned in his throat as he got to the Gryffindor common room and saw the perfectly normal picture of the Fat Lady's background propped up against the stairs, the Gryffindor doorway gaping open. His supposed friends were gathering their belongings inside, and tried not to look at him as he stalked to his room. There, he flung himself on the bed and allowed himself to cry aloud.  
  
Miles and miles away, Voldemort sat. He had news from an insider that It was all working beautifully. He fingered his gleaming wand in a self- satisfied manner, and smiled to himself.  
  
'Harry,' Vernon greeted him, a nervous edge on his voice. Harry looked him in the eye, scowled, and looked away. His trunk was on a trolley, Hedwig in her cage on the top - his souvenir. 'It's not your fault, Harry,' Hermione said. She had insisted on coming with him for the journey. Ron had not spoken to him. 'there were times when we all believed it was the truth. We all wanted to tell you, but our contracts.' 'Shut up. I don't care.' 'OK. Well, e-mail me or something sometime. I'm really, really sorry, you know.' He said nothing, and she climbed back into the taxi and left. 'You can have all the same privileges as Dudley now,' Petunia said consolingly to Harry, 'it was so hard for us, bringing you up like that. But it's all over now.' Dudley said nothing, and looked at Hedwig distastefully. Harry knew it would be a long time before he was ever equal to Dudley in any of their eyes - fourteen years of treating him like some type of vermin had to have left its toll. Privet drive looked much the same as usual. Harry took his belongings to his room and refused to come out for supper. Somehow starving himself felt like punishing them. He took out his school books; Standard books of spells, the Book of Monsters, and put them in a pile on his trunk, which was metal, and burnt them all. Soon after, he fell asleep. Harry dreamt that he was sitting in a floating chair, flying around Hogwarts, and it was all melting before his eyes. Everyone there was melting too, and they were all running around desperately, holding their melting faces and other people's melting hands. And then, in the middle of the school, he saw a robed body holding a wand which was controlling the melting. The robes were not melting. Nor were the wand, or the hand holding it. Harry instinctively knew it was Voldemort. Voldemort turned, and saw Harry. His lips peeled back and he gave a long sneering laugh. And then he waved his wand and the melting stopped, and everyone in Hogwarts was standing, laughing at him in just the same way, only. only there was a sense of duty - of hysterical fear. Then, Harry woke. Only, he could still hear Voldemort's laugh.  
  
Sorry I haven't written in ages! More will come soon (hopefully). I've got back into it now. Can I have your opinions please on whether I am allowed to add some LOTR characters and make it into a cross over, or would that just ruin everything? I don't think I should, but it's so tempting!!! Please review! 


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